Kurz to quit as Austrian chancellor amid corruption probe

BERLIN – Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said Saturday that helium volition measurement down successful a bid to defuse a authorities situation triggered by prosecutors' announcement that helium is simply a people of a corruption investigation.

Kurz, 35, said helium has projected to Austria's president that Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg go chancellor. But Kurz himself volition stay successful a cardinal governmental position: helium said helium volition go the caput of his blimpish Austrian People's Party's parliamentary group.

Kurz's enactment had closed ranks down him aft the prosecutors' announcement connected Wednesday, which followed searches astatine the chancellery and his party's offices. But its inferior conjugation partner, the Greens, said Friday that Kurz couldn't stay arsenic chancellor and demanded that his enactment nominate an “irreproachable person” to regenerate him. The conjugation authorities took bureau successful January, 2020.

The Greens' leader, Vice Chancellor Werner Kogler, welcomed Kurz's determination arsenic “a close and important step.”

Ad

“This means that we tin proceed our enactment successful government,” helium said.

Kurz and his adjacent associates are accused of trying to unafraid his emergence to the enactment of his enactment and the state with the assistance of manipulated polls and affable reports successful the media, financed with nationalist money. Kurz, who became the People’s Party person and past chancellor successful 2017, denies wrongdoing.

The Greens said the probe created a “disastrous” impression. In a abstracted case, anti-corruption authorities enactment Kurz nether probe successful May connected suspicion of making mendacious statements to a parliamentary commission, an allegation helium besides rejected.

Opposition leaders had called for Kurz to spell and planned to bring a no-confidence question against him Tuesday successful parliament.

“We are inactive successful a precise delicate signifier successful Austria — the pandemic is not yet implicit and the economical upswing has lone conscionable begun,” portion a betterment of the country’s taxation strategy to assistance curb greenhouse state emissions has been negotiated but is not yet implemented, Kurz said.

Ad

“What we request present are unchangeable conditions,” helium told reporters successful Vienna. “So, successful bid to resoluteness the stalemate, I privation to marque mode to forestall chaos and guarantee stability."

He insisted again that the accusations against him “are mendacious and I volition beryllium capable to wide this up — I americium profoundly convinced of that."

Kurz said of the Greens' request for his replacement: “Many archer maine that this is unfair and ... you tin ideate that I personally would besides beryllium grateful if the presumption of innocence successful our state truly applied to everyone.”

He insisted that the accusations against him were being “mixed up” with aged substance messages that person surfaced successful caller days. “Some of them are messages that I decidedly wouldn't formulate the aforesaid mode again, but I americium lone a quality being with emotions and besides flaws,” helium said.

Kurz volition support his party's enactment arsenic good arsenic becoming its parliamentary radical leader.

He responded to the request for an untainted caller person with Schallenberg, 52. Although loyal to Kurz, Schallenberg has a inheritance successful diplomacy alternatively than enactment politics.

Ad

Schallenberg already served arsenic overseas curate successful a non-partisan interim authorities that ran the European Union federation of 8.9 cardinal radical for respective months aft Kurz’s archetypal conjugation with the far-right Freedom Party collapsed successful 2019.

Kurz pulled the plug connected that authorities aft a video surfaced showing the vice chancellor and Freedom Party person astatine the time, Heinz-Christian Strache, appearing to connection favors to a purported Russian investor.

Austria's adjacent regular parliamentary predetermination is owed successful 2024.

Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This worldly whitethorn not beryllium published, broadcast, rewritten oregon redistributed without permission.